Aerones, a robotics business that cleans and inspects wind turbines instead of people, just raised $38.9 million from a large number of unnamed investors, according to a report by TechCrunch.
Wind turbines must be kept clean to continue producing green energy. However, they have the tendency to spill oil, which ultimately compromises the blades' performance, creates wind resistance, and pollutes their surroundings.
Aerones uses remote-controlled robots to clean the towers and blades by spraying them with liquid detergent. The contaminated liquid is then collected in funnels below the blades so that they can be reused.
The robots use ultrasonic scanners and cameras to evaluate turbine systems as well.
(Photo : Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 07: Wind turbines generate electricity at Burno Bank Off Shore Wind Farm on December 07, 2022 in Liverpool, England.
More Than 5,000 Turbines
Aerones' site says the company has cleaned more than 5,000 turbines to date across 19 countries. In the US alone, there are more than 72,000 wind turbines. Turbines produced about 9% of the nation's electricity in 2021, according to TechCrunch.
Aerones, a Latvian startup supported by Y Combinator, plans to raise at least $2.5 million more, as revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Aerones received $9 million in seed funding in April from Change Ventures in Estonia and Future Positive Capital in France.
Dainis Kruze, a co-founder, stated at the time that the company was quickly ramping up operations and that it was already collaborating with nine out of ten of the largest businesses in the sector.
Leading Edge Repair Robot
The modular toolkit serves as the building block of the Aerones Wind Turbine Leading Edge Repair Robot. It is a base platform that a winch system controls in both vertical and horizontal space.
The platform may accommodate a variety of robotic arms made for varied maintenance and inspection tasks.
Aeronos created the edge surface cleaning and sanding, a 3M protective tape removal, filler solution application, and an edge protection coating robot for blade restoration services.
The company also revealed the new generation wind turbine blade leading edge brush in October combined with their edge ice-phobic coating robot.
The company's edge brush robot tool meticulously hand-cleans the blade surface. Aerones claims that it can clean the leading edge of a wind turbine blade in no more than 20 minutes using high-quality brushes and a biodegradable detergent.
Before making repairs or coating the leading edge, it could clear out bugs, oil, algae, dirt, and other impurities.
They recently experimented with this method using an application robot for ice-phobic coatings. They claim that the outcomes were flawless. They shifted from using brushes to the painting tool arm while still using the same robotic tool base.
Additionally, Aerones said that the coating procedure moves rather quickly. The robot can control and cover the blade at a speed of 6 meters per minute. This results in well-coated blades in 4-6 hours.
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